Self-kindling charcoal package



Nov. 28, 1961 T. N. PECK 3,010,809

SELF-KINDLING CHARCOAL PACKAGE Filed May 11, 1960 INVENTOR. THOMAS N. PECK BY 2 d A W MATTORNEY United States Patent 3,010,809 SELF-KINDLING CHARCOAL PACKAGE Thomas N. Peck, Paris, Ky., assignor to Calabrian (30., Inc., New York, N.Y. Filed May 11, 1960, Ser. No. 28,281 9 Claims. (CI. 44-40) This invention relates to a charcoal-kindling package. Packages of this type comprise a predetermined charge of charcoal packaged in a combustible container which, when ignited, is intended to fire the charcoal.

Briquetted charcoal is quite popular as a food broiling fuel due to its ability not only to burn quietly for a substantial period of time providing an intense and substantially-uniform radiant heat without the accompaniment of open flames but also to enhance the odor and taste properties of the cooked food. It is, however, dithcult to ignite both rapidly and uniformly and dirty to handle. To facilitate its rapid and uniform ignition, it is often wetted with a combustible starter liquid which is generally sold in separate containers. Such combustible liquids may be dangerous to use and they frequently produce fumes and odors which may dele ten'ously affect the taste of food cooked over charcoal which initially contained one or more of them.

In order to avoid the use of starter liquids and the dirt involved in handling charcoal briquets, it has been proposed to package them in combustible containers which may themselves be readily ignited and which, when ignited, are intended to fire the briquets rapidly and uniformly, that is to say, to cause them to start burning not only rapidly but also uniformly over a widespread area. But most, if not all, of these proposed packages have been subject to one objection or another such as: being too expensive to manufacture, or difficult to ignite, or inconsistent in operation when ignited in that it failed to fire the charcoal rapidly and uniformly or at all; or requiring perforation or tearing before it can properly be ignited.

The principal object of this invention is to eliminate the foregoing objections, or at least minimize them in substantial measure, and, more particularly, to provide a highly satisfactory charcoal-kindling package.

Other objects of this invention are to provide a charcoal-kindling package which has one or more of the following advantages: it is simply and inexpensively constructed, easily filled with briquets and enclosed; it is easily and quickly ignited without being torn or perforated; when ignited, it will quickly provide a chimney effect, burn briskly and yet retain its form long enough to insure the firing of the briquets rapidly and uniformly; and it will finally collapse and completely burn away leaving no solid residue other than ash.

Generally speaking the foregoing objects are achieved by packaging the charcoal in a vertically-elongate combustible container having side walls which burn rapidly on the inside and more slowly on the outside so as to enable the outer side wall to act as an outer shell or chimney for a period long enough to permit the bottom of the package and the inner side walls of the shell to burn with unrestricted freedom at a rate capable of firing the briquets lining the bottom and inner side wall of the package both rapidly and uniformly. Thus, while these side walls may be composed of different types of combustible materials, I have found that they may be provided by a single type of material which is treated on its outer side with a fire retardant so as to enable the outer side wall to resist burning and to act as a chimney for a time period long enough to permit the bottom of the package and the inner Walls of the shell to fire the adjacent briquets at least. In this way, when the shell collapses, the briquets lining the bottom and 2 inner side wall of the shell are in position to furnish a base for the briquets in the center of the shell and thereby insure the ultimate combustion of the entire mass in a rapid and uniform manner.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

FEG. 1 is a perspective view of a package which is constructed in accordance with my invention, this package having portions cut away to show internal details;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged section taken on line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective View showing the package on a reduced scale and illustrating it being ignited; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the bag providing a chimney as the package burns.

The charcoal package shown in the drawing broadly includes: a vertically-elongate shell having a combustible vertical side wall structure which burns at a brisk rate on the inside of the package and a relatively slow rate on the outside thereof; a grate at the bottom of said shell; a charge of charcoal in said shell and resting on said grate; and a vertically elongate bag enclosing said shell, grate and charcoal.

Vertically elongate shell The shell 1 illustrated comprises a four-sided, openended, vertical tube of combustible corrugated cardboard. As seen in FIG. 1, the corrugations of the cardboard are arranged to run horizontally, in order to promote combustion horizontally around the shell and correspondingly prevent fast combustion along any narrow vertical portion of the shell, which might rupture the shell prematurely or otherwise cause it to collapse long before it has burned on the inside sufficiently to fire the riquet. The shell 1 may be made by cutting a long strip of corrugated cardboard to a width corresponding to the height of the shell and to a length corresponding to its circumference, whether round, square, rectangular or otherwise.

A shell of the rectangular cross section shown, is formed by bending the cardboard strip along appropriate fold lines 2 extending across its width dimension to form the four sides of the shell 1. The opposite vertical end edges of the strip forming the shell may be held together by stapling or gluing these ends to each other or by banding the shell circumferentially. Actually there iS no pressing need to provide any special means for holding or securing the ends of the strip together since it will be ultimately held in its shell-forming shape by the bag in which it is ultimately placed.

In carrying out my invention with a shell of the character illustrated in FIGS. 1-2, the outer surface 4 of the shell is treated in any suitable way with any suitable fire retardant or fiameproofing agency. In selecting a fire retardant, certain requirements should be considered, namely: (1) durability under a wide range of service conditions; (2) lack of adverse effect on the human hands or on the tear and tensile strength of the shell; (3) freedom from toxicity and deterioration; and (4) relatively low cost.

Water soluble fire retardants are, in general, the cheapest and easiest to apply. Most are colorless and, in moderate concentration, have relatively little adverse effect on tear and tensile strength. They may be applied to the shell by rolling it on or dipping it in or spraying or brushing it with a water solution of suitable concentration. Water soluble fire retardants which are widely used on cotton and rayon fabrics and on paper and other cellulosics, may be used. These include: (1) borax-boric acid (7:3); (2) boraX-boric acid-diammonium phosphate (7:3:5); (3) sodium phosphate-boric acid (1:1); (4) boric acid-diarnmonium phosphate (1:1); (5) boraX-boric acid-sodium phosphate (102723); (6) ammonium sulfamate; (7) ammonium sulfamate-diammonium phosphate (3:1); (8) ammonium bromide; (9) sodium tungstate;

' and (10) borax-boric acid-sodium phosphate-sodium The grate '6 may be in the form of a long, narrow strip of combustible corrugated cardboard which is sinuously bent to an accordion shape and placed in the bottom of the shell 1 with the width of the strip extending vertically and with the (crests and valleys of the) corrugations extending horizontally. Generally the successive folds of the grate 6 are arranged to provide air passages between each fold. These air passages should not be large enough to permit individual 'briquets of normal size to drop between the pleats or folds. The horizontal corrugations tend to promote the horizontal propagation of flames along the length of the grate.

Charcoal charge The charcoal charge 8 comprises a suitable amount of treated or untreated charcoal briquets of conventional character. They are arranged in the shell 1 to form a column, which rests on the grate 6 and which extends upwardly to a level adjacent the top of the shell.

Bag

The vertically elongate bag 10 enclosing and holding the shell .1, grate 6 and charcoal 8 is made of a flexible and combustible paper, such as kraft paper. It may be and preferably is of conventional construction, having its bottom end permanently closed and its upper end temporarily closed in a manner preferably causing it to be sift proof and permitting it to be easily and quickly opened. As shown, its mouth is closed by folding the upper end of the bag at least once and by well-known means (not shown) which are strong enough normally to prevent the accidental opening of the bag yet weak enough to permit it to be intentionally opened with little efiort. A single metal staple at the vertical center-of the fold may serve this purpose.

The bag .10 has a tab 11 provided at its bottom end which is adapted to be ignited in firing the package. The tab 11 is integral with the bag It) and may be readily formed, during the manufacture of the bag, by cutting the lower end of the bag to provide the tab 11 and closing the bags lower end to leave the tab 11 free, so that it'.

can later be bent out from the bags bottom for ignition purposes. Normally, it is easier to ignite an edge. of a piece of paper than the face of a paper surface at a point remote from its edges. The tab 11 thus provides a paper edge which is easily ignited. Furthermore, the mere presenceof the tab 11 is believed to be of some aid in directing users to ignite the bag at its bottom end, rather than at some other less effective place such as its top.

Operation Prior to use, the closed mouth of the bag keeps the charcoal and its dust within the package. In instituting use the mouth of the package may remain closed but preferably it is unfolded and spread open. The bottom of bag 1 is then ignited and this is conveniently done by lighting the tab 11 with a match, as seen in FIG. 3. Once the bag bottom is ignited, the burning package is placed in a suitable receptacle, such as a charcoal grill, in an upright position where the open top bag 16 and the shell '1 can act as a chimney, creating a draft upwardly through the grate 6 and charcoal 8, causing the flames to burn up- 4 wardly through the charcoal at a sufficiently intenseheat to ignite the charcoal, as seen in FIG. 4.

The bag 10 is, of course, the first part of the package to be wholly consumed by the flames. During that process, the grate 6 and the inner side wall of the shell start to burn with unrestricted freedom. The fire retarding outer surface 4 of the shell it slows down the process of burning of the shell so that it remains structurally strong enough to hold the charcoal together for a period of time adequate for the charcoal to become ignited and to provide a chimney efiect which facilitates the thorough firing 0f the briquets. This period may normally range from five to ten minutes. Ultimately the shell 1 collapses to release the charcoal, which, by this time, will normally be well fired. The burning of the side wallsand of the bottom wall furnished by the grate (which normally will retain enough strength to continue functioning as a grate until the shell collapses) is normally effective to fire the adjacent surface of the briquets efiectively. When the shell collapses, the briquets which are thus fired tend to form the base of the resulting collapsed pile of briquets with the center briquets overlying that base and thereby in a position to be rapidly fired by the base briquets. As a consequence, the burning of the whole mass of briquets may be expected to proceed in a uniform and relatively rapid manner, it being understood, of course, that the rapid burnin of a briquet is a moderately slow process.

Generally speaking, the burning charcoal should be ready for cooking use in about twenty to thirty minutes after the bag is first ignited. Long before this time, however, the shell 1, grate 6 and bag 10 will be totally consumed.

Modification It will be appreciated that a charcoal retaining shell capable of burning with a differential rate which is relatively fast on the inside and slow on the outside may be provided in various ways. For example, the shell may be formed of fire-retardant treated or untreated cardboard which is lined on its inside with a faster binning material such as cotton batting, for example. A cardboard shell could also be used to provide the outer face of corrugated cardboard.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. A charcoal-kindling pack-age comprising: a vertically-elongate open-ended shell structure of a character such that it is capable of unrestricted burning at one rate on its inner side and at a relatively slower rate on its outer side; a combustible, air-porous grate at the bottom of said shell; a plurality of charcoal briquets massed within said shell to rest upon said grate; and a vertically-elongate combustible bag having its bottom closed and a mouth at its upper end, said bag enclosing said shell, grate and charcoal, and the mouth of the bag being normally closed to retain said charcoal within the package, said bag being adapted to be ignited at its bottom and being normally operative, when ignited, to burn and cause said grate and shell to burn and fire said briquets.

2. The charcoal-kindling package of claim 1 wherein: said shell structure is composed of combustible corrugated cardboard and is operative, during the burning process, to provide a chimney effect before burning proceeds to the point of shell collapse; and fire retarding means on the outer face of the cardboard shell to cause it to burn at a lower rate than its inner side and thereby correspond 5. The charcoal-kindling package according to claim 3, including a fire retardant on the outer surface of the shell.

6. The charcoal-kindling package according to claim 3, said shell being composed of corrugated cardboard.

7. The charcoal-kindling package according to claim 3, said grate being composed of corrugated cardboard.

8. The charcoal-kindling package according to claim 3, said retaining means comprising a combustible bag enclosing the shell.

9. A charcoal-kindling package comprising: a combustible shell for containing charcoal and having upper and lower portions and openings in such portions, said shell forming a flue for accelerating ignition of the charcoal and being resistant to combustion and disintegration until ignition and active burning of the charcoal; a combustible grate disposed in the lower portion of the shell for supporting and kindling the charcoal and being ignitable through the lower opening in the shell; and means associated with the shell for retaining the grate and charcoal within the shell.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Re. 6,246 Husbands Jan. 19, 1875 154,796 Husbands Sept. 8, 1874 2,206,362 Mulcey July 2, 1940 2,240,335 Keil Apr. 29, 1941 2,738,260 Wolfson et al. Mar. 13, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 2,862 Great Britain Aug. 13, 1875 

1. A CHARCOAL-KINDLING PACKAGE COMPRISING: A VERTICALLY-ELONGATE OPEN-ENDED SHELL STRUCTURE OF A CHARACTER SUCH THAT IT IS CAPABLE OF UNRESTRICTED BURNING AT ONE RATE ON ITS INNER SIDE AND AT A RELATIVELY SLOWER RATE ON ITS OUTER SIDE, A COMBUSTIBLE, AID-POROUS GRATE AT THE BOTTOM OF SAID SHELL, A PLURALITY OF CHARCOAL BRIQUETS MASSED WITHIN SAID SHELL TO REST UPON SAID GRATE; AND VERTICAL-ELONGATE COMBUSTIBLE BAG HAVING ITS BOTTOM CLOSED AND A MOUTH AT ITS UPPER END, SAID BAG ENCLOSING SAID SHELL, GRATE AND CHARCOAL, AND THE MOUTH OF THE BAG BEING NORMALLY CLOSED TO RETAIN SAID CHARCOAL WITHIN THE PACKAGE, SAID BAG BEING ADAPTED TO BE IGNITED AT ITS BOTTOM AND BEING NORMALLY OPERATIVE, WHEN IGNITED, TO BURN AND CAUSE SAID GRATE AND SHELL TO BURN AND FIRE SAID BRIQUETS. 